Back to the Craft: living off the grid

My work in progress this week has been my blog! I'm trying to complete some pages including an "About Me" and photos of my quilt finishes and quilts in progress.

Nalia's Love Blanket

Including the knit blankets that our community has made for our friends who have been affected by cancer or other life threatening illness. I was involved in sewing together the first 3 and the women of our island have gone on to make at least six more! It has been a great way to send warmth and healing energy to someone who is going through a hard time.

I am writing tutorials on traditional skills (canning, making candles, brewing beer and wine at home, hide tanning) gardening (how to prepare a bed, planting tips, using mulch and cover crops) and keeping dual purpose animals like chickens, goats, and rabbits, which can be used to prepare land for planting crops and also provide fertilizer to the garden and meat for the household.

I guess that makes this more of a farm blog than a quilt blog, even though my blogroll is all quilters.

I have a passion for making quilts but I am still a beginner. Living off the grid and growing food for the last eight years, I have learned a lot along the way. There are so many beautiful quilters out there and hundreds of great tutorials, but what is much less common is good information relating to homesteading and self-sufficiency. I hope to fill the gap and maybe inspire others to grow their own, buy locally, and learn about how to survive away from corporations and processed food.

I started as a suburban teenager who ate fast food and didn't know squat about nature, armed only with an independent spirit and willingness to work hard and learn. Living off the grid means that we supply all of our own electricity, water, and heating. This is often hard work but is very satisfying and I wouldn't trade it for a high paid job in the city, no way.